Control of illumination within an interior space may utilize a natural daylight management system. Some natural daylight management systems utilize shading near a window or other light passageway in optical communication with natural daylight to alter the amount and/or type of daylight that is directed into the room. For example, automated blinds may be selectively actuated to minimize glare from sunlight in an interior space. Also, for example, some daylight management systems may utilize light guiding systems to direct exterior daylight (diffusely, directly, and/or via collection and transportation) to an interior area. However, known daylight management systems suffer from one or more drawbacks. For example, conventional daylight management elements do not adjust in correspondence with detected orientation information of the daylight management element. Also, for example, current daylight management elements do not proactively adjust based on short-term weather-based information.
Control of illumination within an interior space may additionally or alternatively employ an artificial daylight system that attempts to mimic natural daylight. Artificial daylight systems have been implemented in large buildings and/or urban areas in which many spaces have only limited access to natural daylight. Some known artificial daylight systems are configured to mimic natural daylight conditions with varying degrees of accuracy. For example, some artificial daylight systems mimic changes in color temperature and light intensity throughout the day in synch with typical daylight patterns. However, conventional artificial daylight elements suffer from one or more drawbacks. For example, artificial daylight elements do not adjust the direction or other characteristic of light output in correspondence with detected orientation information of the artificial daylight element. Also, for example, daylight elements do not adjust light output based on short-term weather-based information. As a result, these known artificial daylight systems are typically unable to accurately reproduce contemporaneous daylight conditions for their geographic location, instead generating lighting effects which are inconsistent with lighting effects from either other artificial daylight elements in the same space or building, or from actual daylight in the space. It common for end users to experience both real daylight and mimicked daylight effects simultaneously. In those instances, if the direction, intensity, color temperature and other lighting characteristics from various light sources are inconsistent or in conflict, the resulting combined illumination may disorientate the user or make the artificial lighting effect look unrealistic or unpleasant.
Thus, there is a need in the art to provide systems and methods that control natural daylight and/or artificial light in a space and that optionally overcome one or more drawbacks of existing approaches.